It's President's Day: Tahoe's second busiest ski weekend. And conditions on the hill are poised to be shredtastic. Recent storms and a few mid week dustings have kept the groom crews busy the past couple days. That means your favorite trails and lifts will be open and well maintained. Sunny skies, calm winds and temps in the 40's will set you up for outside lunching and pit stops, which is always a win.

But what we're really excited for this weekend is what happens after the sun goes down. Yep, it's Valentine's and that should mean one thing for you in Tahoe: night skiing. Head to Squaw to take advantage of this underrated and often overlooked awesomeness. Squaw night skiing runs from 5 pm to 9 pm and the price is included in both all-day and half day lift tickets. If you only want to night ski, it'll cost you a mere $22 bucks. That's way cheaper than a romantic dinner and will win you way more points for creativity.  You can ski The Mountain Run (a 3.2 mile intermediate) or head up the Belmont lift to Terrain Park. Both are lit by 1000 watt sodium bulbs, and hello, the moon and stars. Indulge at a couple of drink spots: get a cocktail High Camp's Ice Bar (yep, that's literally an ice bar) and hit up The Slot back in Squaw village (a new signless annex bar attached to Bistro 22, whose name is a homage to the tight quarters of a Squaw chute skied by locals). A few Slot drink specials of note for your post-night skiing pleasure: the PBJ special, that's a Pabst PBR paired with your favorite 'J' liquor (Jack, Jaeger, Jose, Jim Beam) for $6 or a Rolling Stone: Mickey's Widemouth and shot of Jaeger for $7. Those will do it.


And if you must do the fancy dinner thing, head to the River Grille in Tahoe City. Overlooking the Tahoe River, it'll impress (oh, and it's known by locals as the best Happy Hour around).